Fact Check: MSNBC Did NOT Broadcast Old Footage From 2017 -- Video Really Shows Boston's Oct. 2025 No Kings Protest

[Thiệu Ngô]

Did MSNBC air old 2017 footage of a large crowd in Boston Common and misrepresent it as live footage of the Oct.2025 No Kings protest? No, that's not true .

By: Sarah Thompson

The footage shows the October 18, 2025 No Kings protest as it was taking place. The 2017 protest mentioned on social media took place in a different area of the Boston Common as could be verified by looking at landmarks visible in the footage.

The video clip appeared in a post published on X on Oct. 19, 2025 by @THEPatriotOasis. It was captioned:

🚨BREAKING: Analysts are calling this the biggest FRAUD in American history. MSNBC falsely aired a Video from 2017 claiming it was LIVE footage from yesterday's "No Kings" rally in Boston.

MSNBC purposely wanted to portray a massive turnout for "No Kings." Which was a LIE.

This is how the video clip appeared in the post:



In the upper left corner of the video clip is what appears to be a screenshot of a proposed Community Note. The text reads:

Rate proposed Community Notes
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This video is from a 2017 Boston protest, not today's No Kings rally, which was indeed a large event with tens of thousands attending per reports.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Fr...
reuters.com/world/us/no-ki...
usatoday.com/story/news/nat...

The information in this proposed note is not correct. The footage does show the Oct. 18, 2025 No Kings Protest in Boston Common.

Raw footage of a 2017 counter-protest was posted on YouTube by CBS 17 on Aug. 19, 2017 . The aerial footage was filmed over Boston a week after the Unite the Right rally happened in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Boston Free Speech Rally was only attended by a small group who were inside the Parkman Bandstand . Boston police commissioner estimated 40,000 people attended counter protests in the city. Those at Boston Common were kept a distance from the Free Speech group in the bandstand by police officers and barricade fencing.

Another clip of aerial footage of the No Kings rally was aired by NBC10 Boston , live at 11:15 a.m. -- just twenty minutes before the live clip which was aired by MSNBC. This NBC10 video was posted on YouTube on Oct.18, 2025 (archived here).